On the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 the royal house took the Germanic surname of her consort Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. King Edward VII, who reigned until 1910, was to become the only sovereign of that dynasty to reign in Britain.

The House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha descended in the male line from the Wettin family, German Prince-Electors of Saxony, the earliest traceable member of the House of Wettin was Thiedericus who died in 982, who was probably based in the Liesgau. Its earliest known ancestors pushed the frontier of Germany eastward into formerly Slav territory. They acquired their name from their castle on the bank of the Saale river.

At the height of World War I, when German xenophobia had reached boiling point, Edward VII's son, King George V (1910- 1936) changed the family name to the more English sounding House of Windsor.

Members of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha occupied the thrones of other European countries, including Belgium, Portugal and Bulgaria.